Back in Malta
by muzikchic4eva
Summary: HOH Spoilers. In which Jason remembers that when he and the others found Leo in a cafe jumpy about the name Calypso, he was going to make sure that his best friend was okay.


**I'm absolutely in love with the Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series, and after reading the House of Hades I couldn't resist putting this up. I'm putting aside very important work but… fandom. My only excuse.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO, it belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

_He spread his arms and grinned._

_He was making a brave attempt, but Jason could see the sadness lingering in his eyes. Something_  
_had happened to him … something to do with Calypso._

_Jason tried to remember the story about her. She was a sorceress of some sort, maybe like Medea_  
_or Circe. But, if Leo had escaped from an evil sorceress's lair, why did he seem so sad? Jason would_  
_have to talk to him later, make sure his buddy was okay._

_-House of Hades, Chapter LX _

* * *

It was the day after Percy and Annabeth came back from Tartarus when Jason remembered that day in Malta. Something clearly had happened to Leo while he, as Leo put it, 'got marooned'. After that day, Leo was never fully himself again. He pulled jokes, and his sense of humor was back, but there was always something missing.

Not to mention, Jason still couldn't forget the wistful sadness in his best friend's eyes.

He found Leo in the engine room alone, working on the astrolabe and a crystal he had never seen before. Carefully, he sat down in front of Leo. "Hey, Leo."

Leo looked up and grinned, quickly stuffing away his astrolabe. Jason took notice with a slight frown. "Jason! You never visit me down here! Trouble with Piper, man?"

"No, actually…" Jason trailed off, not sure of how he should word this. "I wanted to know whether you wanted to talk about what happened after Khione's attack…" He carefully avoided Calypso's name.

Leo froze, before slumping slightly. "Damn, you're giving me The Talk."

"The what?"

"The Talk," Leo grinned half-heartedly, his eyes gleaming with mischief. Jason had a feeling that Leo was alluding to something totally different and using it to make a joke. "You know, the one… wait, was there no explanation at Camp Jupiter? Oh this is going to be hilarious. I definitely don't want to be the one stuck telling you. Maybe Piper will, or Coach Hedge. That'll be a laugh-"

"Leo, don't put the spotlight on me," he sighed. He had to steer this back to the original question. "We're best friends, right?"

"Dude, you have to ask? Duh, I'm your best friend," Leo replied before taking out the astrolabe and fiddling with it.

"Is the girl Calypso? Wasn't she some evil sorceress like Medea and Circe?"

Leo jumped, his wide-eyes staring into Jason's. "Evil? She wasn't evil. Far from it actually."

"So you're going to tell me and stop me from worrying?"

"Sheesh, you and Piper should be my parents. You both have got it down pat," Leo chuckled. "Fine I'll tell you what happened. I fell through the air, managed to make a helicopter, and crashed onto Ogygia."

Jason stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "Ogygia?"

"Yeah, there. I crashed onto her dining room table on the beach. Broke a lot of plates and dishes, I think."

Jason snorted. "Only you, Leo."

"Only you would try to eat a stapler," Leo countered. "Anyways, we both tried to get me off the island, as we both didn't want me to be there. But because of her curse-"

Jason looked up sharply. "She's cursed?"

Leo looked even more heartsick at the words. "Yeah. Heroes will wash up on her island, and they'll only be able to leave when she falls in love with them. And they'll always have a reason to leave. It was a punishment for supporting her father Atlas in the first Titan war way back."

Jason tried to imagine that. Cursed for supporting family, cursed to love someone who'll always leave. He imagined Piper leaving him, and a pain shot through his chest at the thought. "Okay."

"We spent the first few days absolutely hating each other. I lived on the beach away from her, but she still brought me food. I fixed a few things around the place. Then I found some celestial bronze, and started building tools to help me leave.

"She came to complain about my hammering, thanked me for fixing her stuff, and started to help me. She made me clothes, fireproof ones-"

"She made you clothes?"

"Yeah," he smiled fondly. "I made a Roman seeing device, and she used her magic to make it work. Gaia appeared, Calypso banished her, and we talked. We built a navigation device, and we talked more-"

Jason listened as Leo spoke about his days in Ogygia, falling in love with Calypso who seemed to have loved him back despite stubbornly denying it. He listened as Leo described how they were going to own 'Leo and Calypso's Garage: Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters', how the raft had come while they were arguing about Leo coming back for her, and how they kissed before Leo made an oath to come back.

He could tell how serious this was. It wasn't just one of Leo's crushes, like the one he had on Khione when they first met in Boreas' palace or the one he had on his sister, Thalia. It was real, it was mutual, and Jason couldn't help but wish for his friend to be able to go back to Calypso because it was a lot better than Leo looking heartsick for the rest of his life.

Leo held up the astrolabe and the crystal. "Remember how the dwarfs said Odysseus built this? It's a navigation device supposed to go back to Ogygia, with the help of the crystal. I was planning on using this to get back."

"But you told me that she said no man can go to Ogygia twice." Jason said concerned, automatically thinking about the line of the prophecy, and hoping in all Hades that Leo wasn't going to think of that route.

"I'll defy the Fates, then," Leo grinned. "Not the first time I've done so. I defy them by just being here; I annoy them so much with my ADHD tendencies."

Jason cracked a grin. "Just… don't do anything reckless, got it? I don't want to lose my best friend."

"According to Piper, one of us is going to die, so take it up with your girlfriend." Leo countered, but he wasn't serious. He had an intense look of gratitude on his face as he looked at Jason. "And thanks, man. For not laughing."

He had a feeling Leo wasn't only thankful for him not laughing. "Why would I laugh?" Jason asked. "You didn't laugh when I had all my awkward moments with Piper and figuring out who I was when we first met."

Leo still had that thankful look on his face. "Really, Jason, are you sure you're a son of Jupiter? Because you're sounding as if you have the love sense of Aphrodite."

Jason scrunched his nose, before mock-punching Leo in the arm. "If you just compared me to Aphrodite, I might get sick because that would mean Piper and I would have one sick relationship."

Leo wiggled his eyebrows jokingly. "Whatever floats your boat, man."

He scowled slightly before heading out of the engine room. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Yessir," Leo snapped to attention with a salute, a laugh threatening to escape his grin. "The message got across clear, sir."

They both laughed before Jason left and walked back to his cabin. He wondered how he came to be the one to deal with the romance, first with Nico and now with Leo. He didn't mind; he was their friend, of course he would help. But it amused him just slightly.

He sincerely hoped that Leo wouldn't go to extremes, especially with the oath he made.

Leo, back in the engine room, could only hope that he'll see Calypso again. After all, love had no boundaries.

* * *

**I was itching to write this. I got it out of my system, now I'm going back to school work. **

**Read and review? **

**Thanks! **


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